Is your team proactive or reactive?
One of the most common complaints I hear from teams, especially in large organisations, is that they are being “reactive” to their work. They often use the word "overwhelmed" to describe how they feel. In other words, it seems the work “controls” these teams rather than them controlling the work. Much of the coaching I do focuses on turning that around and helping teams feel more proactive rather than reactive. Here are some tips to help you achieve that with your team:
1. Plan the Work
One of the main causes of being reactive is a lack of clarity about what we want to achieve. When your plans, goals, or objectives are unclear, it’s easy for others to dictate your “priority list” as a team. On the other hand, when you are clear about your priorities, it’s much harder to get distracted by other tasks.
If your team’s work is primarily project- or initiative-based, I recommend holding a planning and prioritisation session at least every 90 days. Decide as a team what the main pieces of work will be for that period, and make them the centre of your focus.
If your team’s work is more centred around BAU (Business as Usual), I suggest holding planning sessions more frequently—weekly or fortnightly. If your team handles a combination of project and BAU work, adopt two planning rhythms: one for project-type work and another for BAU tasks.
2. Visualise the Work
Once you know the work you want to complete, visualise it. Whether you prefer an analogue solution (e.g., sticky notes and index cards) or digital tools (e.g., Trello, Asana, Monday), make the work visible to your team—and, if possible, to other teams too.
If your team’s work is primarily initiative-based, visualise your 90-day goals on cards, then break them into weekly tasks. For example, a Trello card might read: “Marketing Plan – Design Marketing Plan for the year,” while a weekly task might say: “Agree on the budget with finance” or “Explore the marketing mix with stakeholders.”
For BAU-focused teams, consider setting up a simple kanban board with columns such as: New Work, Work to Do This Week, In Progress, and Done. Each piece of work gets its own card, making it easy to track progress.
One of the key benefits of visualising work is that it fosters collaboration. Team members will see what others are working on, and over time, they’ll naturally offer to help colleagues under pressure or team up on tasks that were previously done solo.
3. Set Up Rhythms and Cadences Around the Work
Once you’ve identified the work and visualised it, make it the focus of your meetings. Replace unstructured weekly WIPs (Work in Progress meetings)—where the "flavour of the week" often dominates—with structured meetings that use your visualisation tool as the agenda.
This approach helps keep the focus on the initiatives, tasks, and BAU work you prioritised at the start of the planning period. Initiative-based teams may find weekly catch-ups sufficient, while BAU-focused teams might benefit from shorter, more frequent check-ins—perhaps twice a week or even daily.
Plan, Visualise, and Cadence
Believe me, once you implement these three simple strategies, your team will feel more in control of the work and less reactive. When new work arises, the team will be better equipped to deliberate and question:
Is this new task more important than what we planned at the start of the period?
If we take it on, can we do it in addition to our current work, or will we need to pause or drop something else?
By focusing on planning, visualising, and cadence, you’ll create a more proactive and empowered team.
Try it and let me know how you go.
